Battle Scars - A Watcher-Grian AU story

Chapter 9 - Literally everyone needs therapy.

TW: Slight Panic attack, Grian talking about YHS (self explanatory?)

As the two flew over the ocean, Eyn spoke up again. "Hey so... Name and pronouns?"

"Oh uh- He/Him. And you know my name."

"No like- Do you prefer Grian or Xelqua."

"... Xelqua when we're alone I suppose." But he couldn't help but realize he'd started to think of himself as Grian.

"And you're a watcher?"

"...Yep." Yet something felt wrong about that, like he felt more connection to these players then his family...

"So... why did you help me then?"

"Politics."

"That's... Confusing."

"Exactly." He chuckled. "Watchers are secretive, but because we have to be. You see, around a thousand years ago, watchers weren't feared, watchers weren't seen as monsters. They had public recruitments like Admins do. They helped fix glitches that were beyond what the admins could do, and fought against glitched entities and Helsians that were trying to take over. But most of all, they kept the records for all of Minecraft, as Watchers aren't exactly mortal. But, a group undermined this. They claimed watchers restrained ourselves to solely weak magic simply for mortals, who they viewed as inferior. This group had a lot of friends on the council, and slowly, the watchers isolated themselves in the Hub's end, also now known as The Watcher's End." He sighed, before speaking more.

 "This group thought they were strong enough to fully take over the council, and rebelled. So many were lost in this war, and sadly, Mortals didn't see a civil war in the watchers, they saw their gods abandoning them. And when the Rebels fled to try to corrupt servers and force players to join... Well, let's just say all the watchers saw the players as collateral damage, and the Players thought the Watchers had turned against them. And since the Watchers can't reproduce, they had to get new people somewhere, as the war raged on. The rebels stole players from servers, forcing them into mind control, until they snapped and joined them. And the watchers took young players at the edge of their life, or ones being mistreated. And the rebels still are out there somewhere as we both know first hand." He was staring at the waters below him.

"So, you're with..."

"...The watchers, Yes. The REAL ones." Again it felt wrong, to declare his allegiance to the watchers... Probably just because he was so used to keeping secrets. Yeah, that was it, surely?

"If I may ask, you said they took young players that were about to die or being mistreated... Does that include you?" Eyn asked

"Yeah, I'm not THAT ancient that I was around when the choosing was a thing! I'm still a watchling, or a trainee watcher."

"... What happened to you? Was it going to be natural or-"

"... Heh, let's just say they took me from my home server because of both of those of those criteria. Hey look- Land!" Grian tried, and succeeded, to distract Eyn. Below them was a roofed forest, and he slowly glided down. "The trees should hide you from people with elytras."

"Good idea- but why do I need to hide?"

"Trust me, the hermits are gonna be looking for you before you're ready... It's an inconvenient habit I find most mortals have." He sighed, slipping into habits of speech he'd picked up from the watchers.

"..." Eyn suddenly looked very uncomfortable.

He realised what he said. He'd gotten too comfortable, and hurt someone...  "Anddd I sounded like a stuck up jerk didn't I-"